NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Lifestyle

Meet the woman who builds tiny rooms for squirrels and photographs them

By John Kelly
Washington Post·
12 Apr, 2017 12:51 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

A room Nancy Rose set up for her furry models. She lures the squirrels with peanuts. "Those who know what I do think I'm kind of crazy," she said. Photo / Courtesy of Nancy Rose.

A room Nancy Rose set up for her furry models. She lures the squirrels with peanuts. "Those who know what I do think I'm kind of crazy," she said. Photo / Courtesy of Nancy Rose.

When Nancy Rose and her husband were house hunting last year, the first question she'd ask whenever they visited a property was, "Are there squirrels?"

The confused real estate agents would invariably reply: "Are you scared of squirrels?"

"I'd say, 'No, I like squirrels'," Rose said. "'I take photos of squirrels'."

In fact, squirrels are as vital to Rose's work as paints are to a painter or stone is to a sculptor - or, perhaps more accurately, as a ballet dancer is to a choreographer.

Squirrels are Nancy's raw materials. She photographs squirrels engaging in human activities: mailing a letter, cooking dinner, doing the laundry, vacuuming, going camping.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Three of her books have been published in the United States and Canada. A fourth is on the way.

"People still think the squirrels are Photoshopped into the scenes," said Rose, who lives in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.

They're not.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"The way their little paws are kind of wrapped around something is pretty much impossible to Photoshop," she said. "Or the way they're standing against something or behind something. They're just funny poses."

A squirrel enjoying one of Nancy's creations. Photo / Nancy Rose
A squirrel enjoying one of Nancy's creations. Photo / Nancy Rose

Funny poses that are the end result of a lot of work. Rose builds tiny sets on her backyard deck in a Halifax suburb and dresses them with squirrel-scaled props. Then she lures squirrels - red squirrels are the species up there - with peanuts. She stands at her tripod-mounted camera and waits for the squirrels to come.

"Those who know what I do think I'm kind of crazy," she said.

Rose's slide into squirrelography was gradual. The onetime home economics teacher and school guidance counsellor had always been crafty. Ten years ago, she took a digital photography course and started taking pictures in her back yard.

Discover more

Lifestyle

Emotional support hamster flushed down airport toilet

08 Feb 09:56 PM

"Flowers, scenery, birds," she said. "Then one day the squirrels were there. I thought, 'Let's try to get some of those'."

But after a while, the squirrels bored her. "They were always looking the same," Rose said.

A squirrel is a squirrel is a squirrel.

Piling peanuts into a cat food dish and snapping a photo was only mildly amusing. Rose decided: "They need something their size."

She started constructing backdrops, gluing together popsicle sticks, moulding things from self-hardening clay. "My eyes are always open for something that might be squirrel-sized."

Rose came to understand the rhythm of the squirrels, when they were most active, how their natural curiosity would lead them to puzzle out where a nut was hidden.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She posted her photos on Flickr. She made calendars for friends. Then she landed her publishing deal. Her books include The Secret Life of Squirrels, The Secret Life of Squirrels: A Love Story and Merry Christmas, Squirrels!

To me, Rose's masterpiece is the cover of The Secret Life of Squirrels. A squirrel appears to be dropping an envelope into a mailbox.

She made the mailbox out of a blue file folder. (Earlier she'd made a red mailbox, like they have in Canada, but her publisher told her that wouldn't appeal to an American audience.)

She taped a tiny envelope in the opening of the mailbox and put peanuts inside the box.

Canadian photographer Nancy Rose builds tiny sets on her back deck to attract squirrels. She has published three books of her squirrel photos. A fourth is on the way. Photo / Courtesy of Nancy Rose
Canadian photographer Nancy Rose builds tiny sets on her back deck to attract squirrels. She has published three books of her squirrel photos. A fourth is on the way. Photo / Courtesy of Nancy Rose

"I always have the story in my head," Rose said. "Then it's just a matter of praying that he'll do it."

And he did. Rose fired off shot after shot as the squirrel's little paw swept across the envelope, creating an anthropomorphic illusion.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It can take a lot of trial and error, as when Rose made a papier-mache school bus.

"What I really wanted was the squirrel standing by the door of the school bus, like a child waiting for the bus, or in the driver's seat, like a bus driver," she said. "But the squirrel kept going through the front window or out the side window."

A defenestrated squirrel would not be attractive.

"I realized I had to block the windows with stiff clear plastic so the only way into the bus would be through the door," Rose said.

Why squirrels in the first place?

"I guess it's sort of the cuteness factor," said Rose, 63. "If you look at the internet, people are all about baby rabbits and children, anything cute and baby like and fuzzy."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Occasionally, curious chipmunks - members of the squirrel family - stop by, but they don't really serve Rose's purpose.

"They don't stand on their hind legs," she said. "They don't look like little people."

The Roses have just moved to a suburb on the other side of Halifax to be closer to their new grandson. Are there squirrels?

"There are a couple of big trees in the back yard and there was a squirrel on each bird feeder when we visited," Rose said. Plenty of material to work with.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Lifestyle

My weight ballooned after I gave up drinking - here’s how I finally quit both addictions

09 Jul 06:00 AM
Travel

What happens to passengers who are refused entry to New Zealand

Lifestyle

The secret sauce of the bar named NZ's best

08 Jul 10:00 PM

Get your kids involved in your reno

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
My weight ballooned after I gave up drinking - here’s how I finally quit both addictions

My weight ballooned after I gave up drinking - here’s how I finally quit both addictions

09 Jul 06:00 AM

Telegraph: Battling sugar cravings after giving booze the boot.

What happens to passengers who are refused entry to New Zealand

What happens to passengers who are refused entry to New Zealand

The secret sauce of the bar named NZ's best

The secret sauce of the bar named NZ's best

08 Jul 10:00 PM
King Charles hosts state visit with burst blood vessel in eye

King Charles hosts state visit with burst blood vessel in eye

08 Jul 08:59 PM
Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper
sponsored

Sponsored: Why heat pumps make winter cheaper

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP